About Forensic Files Files site author: Robert S.
Robert by birth, I grew up with the unwanted nickname Bobby. Into high school, I finally shook this childish curse, but my 'adult' name fluctuated between Bob and Rob. My dad was already officially Bob (sometimes "Big Bob" to avoid confusion), so Rob is eventually what stuck with me. But of course, to specific pockets of friends and especially family, I'll always be Bob, and even Bobby.
How I ended up here
In my game of Life, I initially bypassed college and rapidly entered the workforce in the early 1990s. Without many discernible skills, I dabbled in everything from food service to phone guy. Fortunately, I'd grown up during the computer revolution, and from quite a young age, I was exposed to the technologies as they evolved. By the mid-1990s, I'd tried my hand a various emerging web technologies, and though my natural design talent never manifested, I quickly grasped the lay of the land.
By 1998, the world was abuzz with the dotcom phenomenon, and my unofficial skills were recognized by yet another start-up of the time. Like so many casualties of the era, I never found the golden ticket of the company's IPO, despite working doggedly. But what I did reap from my effort was genuine web understanding and a pathway to a real career.
After attempting and failing to launch the ubiquitous Web Design sole proprietorship in 1999, I was able to leverage my bubble experience to land a starting-level job with an online retailer. With a combination of dedication, patience, and luck in finding a strong business, I still work for the same company I started with in 2000. My knowledge and my role within the organization has evolved over the two-plus decades, and it's been an amazing journey.
Where is here?
Though I work with them daily, web technologies continue to fascinate me. Smaller projects have come and gone over the years, but these were mostly for friends or minor clients. I don't often get to work with the tools and frameworks of my choosing, so I sought a passion project. I wanted to put the range of skills I'd acquired to use in a comprehensive web site, constructed my way, from the ground up.
The site had to be flexible, and I didn't want to be tied down with a Wordpress (or worse) type of site. I was comfortable enough with databases/SQL, business layer logic, and frontend development to start from scratch. At the same time, I'd been joking about the criminals on my favorite true crime series: Forensic Files. Over the course of 400 episodes and 16 years, I'd recognized some of these perpetrators committing the same blunders, leading to their identification or capture.
The concept of cataloging the show's episodes was born from these notions. I'd seen all of the episodes from the series, most more than once (at least to my knowledge). As a true crime fan and Forensic Files super-fan, I had found my site's focus. I'm something of an 'organization' nerd and maybe a little OCD, so categorizing and arranging my favorite show's 146+ hours of content seemed exciting. My vision of a 400-row spreadsheet with commonalities of the episodes' details was the first iteration of this site. And this is what eventually became a 26-table database and the Forensic Files Files web site.
One more skill to develop
I took for granted the one aspect that might be more important than all of the development knowledge I'd been acquiring since the 1990s: Content. I believed that all of my data would be sufficient to fill the hundreds of episode pages I'd planned. But in a world where your site might as well not exist without search engine placement, "content is king". Each of my episode pages would not only characterize its shared data, but it would need to include a compelling narrative about the episode's subject and my own observations.
I'd never fancied myself a writer of much talent, though I've always enjoyed reading and appreciate the craft when it's well executed. With a writer friend, I shared my reservations about developing my writing skills enough to populate the site with meaningful content. I told her, "I don't feel like a writer." Her reply stuck with me, "I think the act of sitting down and purposefully writing in earnest makes you a writer."
So, I've stuck to it. The first few episodes I cataloged did not come easy. Each thereafter has been less challenging. Where I struggled to reach 800 words about an episode, I now find myself editing out content because I've exceeded 2000. I continue to hone my skill in this new discipline, and I hope like in many crafts, I'll continue to improve with practice.
Enjoy the site!
Robert S.
